Category : Faculty

Economic corridors — ambitious infrastructural development projects throughout Asia and Africa — are dramatically redefining the shape of urbanization. As these corridors cut across croplands, the conversion of agricultural lands into new urban uses has erupted in volatile land conflicts. We sat down with Sai Balakrishnan, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, to learn more about the interaction between agrarian and urban lands throughout India, and the effects that infrastructural changes are having on the nation’s population. On Tuesday, November 5, Balakrishnan will head a panel, Shareholder Cities, on urbanization along the first economic corridor built in India, the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.

Urban conservation is often a pressing challenge in historic Indian cities that are experiencing the pressures of development. Many cities, often lacking any viable local-level policy and enforcement, have resorted to alternative tools, often citizen-led, to accomplish the goal of conservation. In a seminar this week, Ashima Krishna — Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Buffalo — explored the tools of advocacy, politics, and civic engagement through recent examples from the city of Lucknow in northern India.

If you missed our recent event, Voting for Strongmen: Nationalist and Populist Leadership in Brazil and India, check out this podcast to see what Professors Patrick Heller, Bruno Carvalho, and Rachel Brulé have to say about what nationalist and populist leadership means for Brazil, India, and the global political system at large.